What happens to a letter after you mail it

FourDeuce · September 13th, 2009, 02:56 PM

I used to work at the post office, so I thought I'd start a thread explaining what happens to letters after you mail them, in case anybody was curious about that. BTW, this is at a medium sized office, which is kind of average. The smaller offices have less machines and do more of their work by hand. The bigger offices have more machines and use machines to do more of the sorting, cancelling, and moving of the mail.
When you drop them into the slot or the box outside, a distribution clerk comes around and gathers them from the containers and takes them to the cancellation machine. They're dumped onto a conveyor belt, where a clerk tries to take out all the letters which shouldn't be run through the cancelling machine( fat ones, letters without stamps, others with objects which might jam the machine, letters too big or small for the machine, etc.). Sometimes they miss them because they're in a hurry. The mail runs through the cancelling machine and hopefully gets cancelled. That machine also sorts out most of the barcoded mail which then goes to another machine for machine sorting. It also rejects letters with no postage(as well as other mail for various reasons). Sometimes that machine mangles mail as it cancels it. When the humidity is high the machines seem to mangle more mail than dry days.
The non-barcoded letters go to distribution clerks who sit(actually stand supported) in a case and sort each letter by hand.
The barcoded letters get sorted by a machine(which also sometimes mangles them. It often depends on the skill of the person operating the machine how much mail gets mangled, but sometimes the machine just messes up and rips or shreds some mail. That usually causes a jam which stops the machine. The post office likes the machine to be constantly running as long as there's mail to be processed, so they want jams to be cleared as quickly as possible.
After the mail is sorted(either by the machines or by the clerks) it's put into trays and sent to the back dock to be loaded onto the appropriate vehicle to get to its destination.
If you ever mail seeds, they should be sent in padded mailers or boxes. Putting them into envelopes with no protection usually results in the machine squashing them or shredding them. The official limit for the thickness of letters going through the machine is 1/4", but it often seems like they run the machine "tighter" and it messes up letters which are not even close to 1/4" thick.

lorna-organic · September 13th, 2009, 05:25 PM

Good info to know about. Thanks, FourDeuce.

TastyofHasty · September 14th, 2009, 05:01 PM

So if your letter is 1/2" thick, they'll pick it out before it goes through the machine. Probably.
Interesting, FourDeuce!

w8in4dave · September 14th, 2009, 10:44 PM

I love this so I can gripe about the lady at the local post office...I swear something is wrong with her.. I have no clue how she got the job because, she first of all cannot count money , she is always not giving the correct change ,one day she argued with me because she didn't give me my change at all .. Lets see I have no purse with me, my pockets are empty... what??? So I had to wait a month to see if they were over in the till... Yup I got my money..She is such a door knob.. they actually wanted to shut it down, but it is the only one in that town and it is small.. so a petition kept it open...

September 13th, 2009, 02:56 PM	#1
FourDeuce Night Elf Warrior ;) Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Arkansas Ozarks USDA Zone: No zone info Posts: 460	What happens to a letter after you mail it I used to work at the post office, so I thought I'd start a thread explaining what happens to letters after you mail them, in case anybody was curious about that. BTW, this is at a medium sized office, which is kind of average. The smaller offices have less machines and do more of their work by hand. The bigger offices have more machines and use machines to do more of the sorting, cancelling, and moving of the mail. When you drop them into the slot or the box outside, a distribution clerk comes around and gathers them from the containers and takes them to the cancellation machine. They're dumped onto a conveyor belt, where a clerk tries to take out all the letters which shouldn't be run through the cancelling machine( fat ones, letters without stamps, others with objects which might jam the machine, letters too big or small for the machine, etc.). Sometimes they miss them because they're in a hurry. The mail runs through the cancelling machine and hopefully gets cancelled. That machine also sorts out most of the barcoded mail which then goes to another machine for machine sorting. It also rejects letters with no postage(as well as other mail for various reasons). Sometimes that machine mangles mail as it cancels it. When the humidity is high the machines seem to mangle more mail than dry days. The non-barcoded letters go to distribution clerks who sit(actually stand supported) in a case and sort each letter by hand. The barcoded letters get sorted by a machine(which also sometimes mangles them. It often depends on the skill of the person operating the machine how much mail gets mangled, but sometimes the machine just messes up and rips or shreds some mail. That usually causes a jam which stops the machine. The post office likes the machine to be constantly running as long as there's mail to be processed, so they want jams to be cleared as quickly as possible. After the mail is sorted(either by the machines or by the clerks) it's put into trays and sent to the back dock to be loaded onto the appropriate vehicle to get to its destination. If you ever mail seeds, they should be sent in padded mailers or boxes. Putting them into envelopes with no protection usually results in the machine squashing them or shredding them. The official limit for the thickness of letters going through the machine is 1/4", but it often seems like they run the machine "tighter" and it messes up letters which are not even close to 1/4" thick. __________________ The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist hopes the wind will change. The realist adjusts his sails.

September 13th, 2009, 05:25 PM	#2
lorna-organic Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: central New Mexico USDA Zone: 7b Posts: 17,407	Re: What happens to a letter after you mail it Good info to know about. Thanks, FourDeuce. __________________ Lorna Boycott Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Scotts. Scotts is the sole licensed U.S. distributor of Monsanto's RoundUp. MiracleGro is owned by Scotts.

September 14th, 2009, 05:01 PM	#3
TastyofHasty Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: NW Arkansas "newzone7" USDA Zone: 6b Posts: 5,888	Re: What happens to a letter after you mail it So if your letter is 1/2" thick, they'll pick it out before it goes through the machine. Probably. Interesting, FourDeuce! __________________ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things noble, whatever things just, whatever things pure, whatever things lovely, whatever things of good report, if any virtue and if anything praiseworthy -- meditate on these things.

September 14th, 2009, 10:44 PM	#4
w8in4dave mater raider :D Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Michigan USDA Zone: 5b Posts: 8,669	Re: What happens to a letter after you mail it I love this so I can gripe about the lady at the local post office...I swear something is wrong with her.. I have no clue how she got the job because, she first of all cannot count money , she is always not giving the correct change ,one day she argued with me because she didn't give me my change at all .. Lets see I have no purse with me, my pockets are empty... what??? So I had to wait a month to see if they were over in the till... Yup I got my money..She is such a door knob.. they actually wanted to shut it down, but it is the only one in that town and it is small.. so a petition kept it open... __________________